Tim Wakefield and Jonathan Papelbon will both pitch against the Phillies on Saturday, March 3.

All starters will work two innings or 35 pitches.

Ater Schilling on Wednesday night, Mike Timlin, Julian Tavarez, Joel Pineiro and Brendan Donnelly -- the four guys being considered for the closer's job -- will head to the mound.

Matsuzaka pitchedbatting practice to four hitters on Saturday. He threw 22 fastballs and 20 off-speed pitches to Bobby Scales, Jacoby Ellsbury, Luis Jimenez and Kevin Cash. Dice hit about 92 with his fastball; he'll throw another BP session on Monday.

Good decision by the Red Sox to not offer Schilling a guaranteed contract for 2008 before this season begins. Schilling says he willfile for free agency (for the first time in his career). Theo: "Age was a pretty important factor in the determination. ... He's going to be 41. At that age we get a little more conservative. ... It doesn't mean we don't want him back."

Craig Hansen has a back sprain and has not thrown for a few days. ... Jon Lester threw batting practice yesterday and Francona said he "looked tremendous". ... Pitching coach John Farrell on Manny Delcarmen: "He has good command of all three pitches. It's only the bullpen and BP, but the first impressions have been very good."

David Ortiz has added some muscle. "It feels good, even a little more powerful. ... If I hit less home runs (this) year, I'm going to go back to being super fat."

Curt Schilling Said:"I'm going to get ready for opening day and this is not going to change anything that I do

Pedro was also ready to pitch in 2004.

Curt's statement has been all over the media. He said he would not negotiate during the season, so if the Sox did not make him an offer before Opening Day -- and they said they will not -- then he will become a FA and test the waters, with every team getting an equal shot at him.

How has that worked out for the red sox?Pedro goneDamon goneClemens gone

The Red Sox offered sizable piles of $$$ to all three of those players -- and all three decided to go elsewhere. (Plus they did pick up a huge option on Pedro before the 2004 season, making him the highest-paid pitcher in history.)

I agreed with the decision to let all three of those guys go. All of the Sox's final offers were quite fair.

And even though I love Pedro, giving him four years was too much. As the Mets may be finding out.

Redsock I am a full believer in pitching and when you finish 11th in era for the american league and give up the 4th most runs in the league. You are going to finish in 3rd place. Varitek's injury may have had something to do with that.Wakefield maybe as well... The fact remains they pitched like shit last year. Thats why they finished in third.

I hate to keep bringing it up but in 04 they were 3rd in era, gave up the 4th least runs in the league ...

Pitching it sucked last year, plain and simple....

I realize Damon, had nothing to do with that, but some would argue having a leadoff man like him always puts pressure on the other teams pitcher and helps yours.

I'll repeat what I said: On August 1, the Boston Red Sox were in first place. Only one team in MLB had a better record. At that point, they were 7th in total runs allowed in the AL and 2nd in runs scored.

I'm not sure a case can be made that poor pitching did more damage than injuries in sinking the Sox in the final two months -- some of that poor pitching was due to injury -- but I'd be interested in hearing the argument.

For what it's worth, at season's end, the Yankees's team ERA was also below the league average.

This Bill Simmons column from May 2001 touches on many of my feelings:http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1206543mirrored here:http://yanks-suck.com/story12.php

It must be like how other people feel about Bonds: he's an annoying, grating, self-absorbed, asshole.

boot by the Duke

Not even a little bit.

I have felt for awhile that I would like to go back over his last few years with the Sox and see if he was mailing it in, as is commonly thought. My Vermont friend Ray strongly disagrees with that idea. I support it. So I may do that some day.